Stages of Artistic Development

The first piece of art is titled, “Krista and Rylan,” It was part of a
series, “My Family.” This piece is telling a story, something children do in
Edwards’ stage, “Pictures Tell Stories. The mom is holding a baby. My
main hobby with Rylan was holding him and nursing him, so this is an
accurate portrayal of the subjects. What I spent my time doing, was not
lost on this artist, the big sister to Rylan. I think it is interesting that the
face is a silhouette but the rest of the mom and the baby are drawn from
the front view. Considering Lowenfeld’s Stages of Development, I think
this would be the Preschematic Stage. The markings are beyond scribbles
and represent what the artist sees. The people are represented with
rounded bodies and lines for arms and legs. The mom doesn’t seem to
have arms, but they are not radiating from the head. The figures are
floating randomly on the page. This artist was 6 years old when she drew
this piece.

The second art piece is a little confusing to me when trying to figure

out where in Edward’s stage it fits. While this is definitely about realism,
the artist has moved past being frustrated with proportion and and spatial
issues. This could be The Period of Crisis, maybe beyond the Period of
Crisis. This artist had definitely found her preferred preferential style of
drawing. Looking at Lowenfeld’s Stages of Development I think it fits in
the Pseudonaturalistic Stage. The body parts are in proportion to one
another. The figure is in a realistic pose. Things go off the page. You can
see depth portrayed in the facial features and things are hidden by
placement. There is a lot of erasing shown on the piece, an attempt to get
things just right. This artist was 13 when she drew this piece.

 The third piece is an example of Edward’s Stage of Realism. The

artist is drawing what he sees, not from his imagination. He is trying to
convey movement and realistic features of the animals. In Lowenfeld’s
Stages of Development this piece is from the Pseudonaturalistic Stage.
The animal parts are in proportion to one another. You notice depth in how
the legs are partially hidden by other legs. This artist was 13 at the time of
the drawing.

The fourth piece is an example of Edward’s Period of Crisis. I

noticed a little problem with proportion with the thickness of the arms and
length of one of the arms. In Lowenfeld’s Stages of Development this
piece is the Stage of Dawning Realism. The drawing is imaginative and
not what the artist sees in everyday life. This particular drawing has a lot
more detail than other drawings in previous pages. This artist was 12 at
the time of the drawing.

Being familiar with Edward’s and Lowenfeld’s views of artistic

development is helpful in the classroom to better understand the abilities
and needs of your students. Looking at drawings of students can tell a
teacher a lot about a student. If a student who is 10 or 11 is still scribbling
and seemingly unable to make some attempt at realistic drawings, the
teacher could ascertain that the student has a cognitive delay or has not
been exposed to art supplies or allowed to experiment with even the
simplest of tools such as paper and pencil. If a student who is writing 7 or
8 has an advanced grasp of proportion and value, the teacher could
assume the student has enjoyed excellent art instruction and or has a
special gift of drawing.

Knowing a little bit about a class of students, whether they are

advanced in their abilities or maybe have not had the opportunity to
experiment with art tools or have a different level of ability than their peers,
the teacher is able to adjust the options for all the students in the class.
Perhaps the teacher will group students in a particular way to put different
abilities together so they can share their experiences and knowledge.
Perhaps knowing the different ability levels gives a teacher ideas of how to
incorporate more challenging and less challenging options of the same
kind of concept in the lesson for the day. For example if the lesson was
drawing a scene of a city. Students with a lower ability may have to only
include 3 things they know are in their city. For more advanced students
they may have to include 6 things that they know are in their city and they
may have to include 1 point perspective and knowledge of proportion in
their drawing. Knowing the students’ ability levels is helpful in so many
ways.